1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly to electronic devices including non-volatile memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
The ability to prevent certain information stored in non-volatile memory (NVM) from being accessed to read, erase or program content is desirable in order to protect intellectual property and to insure integrity of such data. Protection of such information when an NVM is integrated onto an integrated circuit that includes one or more peripherals and one or more data processors, is also desirable. Many microcontrollers implement a censorship logic which requires a public censorship control word to be programmed in a special NVM block to keep the device uncensored so that external accesses to the NVM are allowed. Once the censorship control word location is altered, e.g., by erasing and programming the NVM block that stores the censorship control word, and a proprietary password is provided, the device will be censored and the NVM will not be accessible externally, e.g., via a debug interface, without knowing the proprietary password and hence the content and integrity of the NVM's contents is protected.